Chapter: 7

Mass Media Writing and

Press Release
• memos, brochures, reports and other forms of routine messages are written
for specific internal and external audience
• But, some part of technical communication also involves writing content for a
wider audience
• This content may be used in newsletters, or other mass media channels such as
newspapers, magazines , internet etc.
• This type of communication concerns public relations and it is popularly known
as mass media writing
• Mass media writing involves the management of relationship between a
company and its customers, or the general public with the aim to maintain a
positive image of the company
• Mass media writing also aims at keeping the general public informed about
what the company is doing in an effort to prove its meaningful existence
 Media Stories
• We often find news and feature stories focusing on business topics in newspapers,
magazines, radio and televisions
• Company’s own newsletters and websites also feature such stories to inform the
customers and general public about some important developments within the
company
News Reports/stories
• News reports are newsworthy pieces of content that inform readers of what is
happening regarding the works of an organization
• They are usually about things and events happening right now or only a few
hours , or a few days ago
• They are highly factual, and don’t contain any opinion of the writer
• They present objective details of events and happenings
• They have their relevance only for a short period of time
• All news reports have to follow a specific structure:
The Five “W’s” and the “H”
• This is the crux and basic principle of all the news. A good news story answers
each of these questions: who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
• Your story isn’t complete until you answer all six questions. Missing any of
these questions leaves a hole in your story
• For instance, if you want to create a news story about a local business, such as
a new development or innovation made by someone, you will need to answer
these questions:
Who: who is involved in the development? Or who is the main actor
responsible for that particular development?
What: what is the development or innovation about? What actually
happened?
Where: where did it happen? Or where are the main actors from?
When: when did it happen? Or when is it going to happen?
Why: why did they do it?
How: how did they do it? Or how did it happen? Or how was it possible?
The inverted Pyramid
• A good news story always follows the structure of a pyramid while presenting
information
• This refers to the style of journalism that places the most important information
and facts at the top and works down from there
• The first paragraph which is also called the “lead” should be able to give readers
a good overview of the entire story
• The lead actually tries to answer all the five w’s and the ‘H’
• The rest of the news story explains and elaborates on the lead
• Since the most important things come at the top and less and less important
details come later, it is called the inverted pyramid
Some Important Tips for Writing Good News Stories
• It’s about people, power and money:
• News stories are almost always about how people or the general public are affected
• Important people, power or politics, and money or business are the most important
news topics almost all the time
• Have an angle:
• The angle of a journalist's story is their main theme or point they are trying to portray.
• In most cases, the angle is laid out specifically in the lead paragraph, making it easier for
the audience to distinguish what the story is all about
• Depending on the writer, articles can sometimes be written with more than one angle
• We must think outside the box in order to find new and innovative angles that will grab
the audience's attention
• Keep it objective, fair and balanced:
• News stories are always factual accounts of events and happenings
• They should not include the reporter’s views and opinions
• first person pronouns such as ‘I’ ‘me’ should not be mentioned unless we quote people
• Quote people:
• News stories that quote people sound more authentic and reliable
• We should quote what people tell us as part of their reaction to the story
• The quoted material must be mentioned within inverted commas
• Keep it simple and informative:
• News stories are about informing people what happened
• So we must write them in short and simple sentences. We must keep the paragraphs
short
• We should not use flowery or heavily descriptive language
 Articles and Stories
• Articles and stories are the forms of write-ups that share some of the
elements of news reports but are different
• Unlike news reports which lose their relevance once when they are stale,
articles are timeless
• They cover topics of general interest and issues
• They can be formal and informal and present opinions or thoughts as well
as facts
• They may describe an experience, event, person or a place
• They may present an opinion, an argument, provide information and offer
suggestions
• Articles and stories have the following types:
1. News Article:
These are reports covering a wide range of issues
They are written in the five w’s and one ‘H’ format
They are also called hard news
2. Feature Articles
These are articles that are about softer issues
A feature article may be on the profile of a person, success stories of people,
problems ,trends, opportunities etc.
3. Review
Reviews are not factual but they tend to be opinionated
They include the writer’s point of view about a product or service such as a movie
review etc.
4. OP-ED or Commentary article
It is an article that is usually published in the opposite page of the editorial page
It is an highly opinionated article. These kinds of articles are highly argumentative
5. Editorial
It is a brief official opinion article written by the editor on behalf of the newspaper
It is usually on the issues of public interest
It is usually published on the upper left corner of the editorial page
6. Column
It refers to the article written by the same person on a regular basis
A column writer or columnist writes on the subjects of his/her interest
For example, a business column in a newspaper consists of regular articles written by
someone on certain products, services or business issues
 Feature Stories/Articles and their Structure
• A feature article gives information of human interest
• Feature articles are generally the stories in newspapers and magazines other
than straight news stories, editorials etc.
• Because of their human interest, they attempt to involve the reader
emotionally.
•  Features do not become outdated as quickly as "hard" news stories
• A good feature article is often interesting to read even a year after it was
written
• It is more similar to fiction because it tells a story
• For example, a news story about the Prime Minister might be about what is
happening in Cabinet
• But a feature article on him would be about his leisure activities, his youth etc.
 Common types of Feature Articles
1. The Human Interest Feature
A human interest feature takes something currently of interest in society and connects
it to something interesting in the life of an ordinary person
For example, a feature article on e-mail might show us e-mail is changing human
relationships at work and at home.
2. Seasonal feature
Seasonal feature articles relate to a holiday event, or a certain period during the
particular time of the year
For example Tihar: the festival of lights may be featured in a newspaper
3. The Personality Feature
A personality feature looks at a person's life in more depth
The person may be well known or completely unknown, but he/she will have done
something of interest to others. For example Mahabir Pun, Dr. Sanduk Ruit etc.
4. The How-To Feature
The how-to feature describes how to do or build something
For example, how to organize your desk for efficiency, or how to clean your house in
twenty minutes
5. The Past Events Feature
The past events feature looks at historical events, but approaches them from the angle
of human interest
For example, in remembering the 2072 Earthquake, rather than look only at the
economic or social facets of the story, a feature article might look at how the
earthquake affected one person's life in particular.
6. The News Feature
The news feature takes a current news story as its start but then investigates how the
news affects the lives of average people
For example, how the employees at a small company whose boss has been killed in a
plane crash, continue running the company.
7. Personal Experience Feature
This is written in first person and reflects the writer’s story
It can be both positive and negative
• Some other types of feature articles can be humour and satire articles,
inspirational pieces on achievements, motivation etc.
 Writing and Organizing a Feature Article
• Unlike the news stories, features don’t follow the inverted pyramid structure
• The opening paragraph may start with an anecdote, a quote, a scene etc.
• The opening has to be able to spark the interest of the reader
• Features combine both facts and personal reflections or observations
Some tips on Feature Writing
• Choose which type of feature article you want to write. Then choose which
emotion you want to appeal to in your readers.
• Decide which method of organization will be most effective for your story:
order of importance or chronological order.
• Start with a sentence that catches the attention of your readers and makes
them want to finish reading the story
• Use the techniques of story writing to help develop the human interest in
your article
• Create a headline that will catch your readers' attention.
Feature Article Checklist
• Is my research complete and accurate?
• Does my opening catch the readers' attention?
• Is my article interesting throughout?
• How have I organized my article? Is it logical?
• Have I used a variety of sentence lengths and styles?
• Have I included transitions to improve the flow and coherence?
• Have I used fresh, effective words?
• Have I removed all unnecessary words?
• Do I tell an interesting story?
 Broadcast Stories
• As a part of technical communication, we may have to use a radio or
television to publicize our company events, or to promote our products and
services
• The news reports and feature stories on radio and television are not as
detailed as in the print because of the space limit
• Broadcast stories are written not just for the eyes but also for the ears
• They need to be written concisely by telling the main points within 20 seconds
to two minutes
• Clear and condensed writing is key. After all, a radio listener or TV viewer can't
go back and re-read a sentence.
 Some key tips for broadcast writing
• Write like you speak:
Write in your own voice, in a conversational tone, as if you’re speaking to only one
listener.
Keep sentences short. If you have a long sentence, follow it up with a short one.
 When you go back and read your narration aloud, do you truly sound like yourself?
• Keep it simple:
Allot a sentence to each idea.
Be clear and concise, stick to the story and don't try too hard to be "clever."
Too much detail can become irrelevant and make the story lose focus.
Avoid most multiple-syllable words, words that are tough to pronounce and long
• Tell stories in a logical order:
Make sure that your content has a beginning, a middle and an ending.
 Don't bury the lead; state the news near the top, without too much buildup.
• Use the present tense and active voice:
You're writing for flow and to express what is going on now.
Broadcast strives for immediacy.
To convey this to the listener, use the active voice whenever possible.
 Try to use a subject-verb-object sentence structure. For example: "Police (subject)
have arrested (verb) 21 activists (object) for staging a protest at Merlion Park on
Saturday afternoon."
 Blogs
• A blog (shortening of “web log”) is an online journal or informational website
displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with latest posts
appearing first
• It is, in fact, an electronic journal or diary of this information age with an
added advantage of openness and interactivity
•  It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on
an individual subject.
• There are many reasons for starting a personal blog
• Blogging for business, projects, or anything else that might bring you money
has a very straightforward purpose – to rank your website higher in Google
SERPs, a.k.a. increase your visibility.
• As a business, you rely on consumers to keep buying your products and
services
• As a new business, you rely on blogging to help you get to these consumers
and grab their attention. 
• So, a typical business blog offers timely updates on your company, its products
and services
• It can be both factual and persuasive
• Great blogging makes your business look more credible, which is especially
important if your brand is still young and fairly unknown
• The more frequent and better your blog posts are, the higher the chances for
your website to get discovered and visited by your target audience
 Press Releases
• A press release is an official statement issued to news outlets giving
information about a new matter regarding our company
• It’s a news report written by the company itself about its own product,
service, event or new development
• It must include information that editors find newsworthy
• In fact, most press releases end up in wastepaper basket without being
published
 Types of Press Releases
1. General news releases
2. Event press releases
3. Launch press releases
4. Product press releases
5. Personnel press releases
6. Response press releases
 Why Press Releases??
Organizations of all sizes use press releases to achieve all sorts of goals. Some
common objectives include:
• To get media coverage. This would be when your company releases a new
product or feature.
• To build your brand’s reputation. Maybe you’re re-launching your brand image
and want more people to know.
• To manage a crisis. When things go wrong, it's often beneficial to break the
story yourself first.
• To build back links from trusted media sites. This could be when you publish a
new e-book, report or blog and you want a reputable source to link back to the
information.
• As a cost-effective way to market your organization. A well-written press
release can help garner public attention due to news coverage.
Format/Structure
 Effective Media Relations
• As a technical communicator, you need to develop a good relation with the
journalists and media houses
• Identify and ring up the journalists who cover stories related to your company
• Read your local newspaper, listen to your radio or watch TV to identify the
types of releases they are likely to publish
• Write short and concise releases, limiting to a single page as far as possible
• Focus on informing the audience, and avoid any kind of sales talk
• Make sure you give them a follow up call to find out whether they have
received the release
• Don’t force or push them to get your release published
• Ask them gently why the release is not worthy of publishing if they don’t seem
to be interested
• Don’t get discouraged if your release doesn’t find its space this time
• Invite journalists to attend press conferences
 Questions
• Short
a. Explain the principle of the five W’s and one H in news report writing.
b. What is inverted pyramid in relation to news report writing?
c. Define feature articles and mention the types of feature articles
d. How are broadcast stories different from print stories?
e. What are press releases? Mention their types.
• Long
a. what are feature articles? Discuss the various types of feature
stories/articles.
b. Discuss the various elements of a blog. How can a blog be useful for
business purposes?
c. What are the key elements of a press release? Discuss the structure of a
typical press release.
d. Why is it important for a business organization to have effective media
relations? How can companies maintain good relationship with the media?